I called into The George Inn at Chideock at lunchtime earlier this week. Being peckish I ordered a ploughman’s lunch to have with my pint of beer.
I’m not a great fan of Palmers beer, there are plenty of other local brews I’d rather have, but there are a couple of Palmers pubs I visit that do pretty passable pints of Copper bitter. Perhaps I caught The George, a tied Palmers pub, on a bad day but I wasn’t impressed with my pint there.
My ploughman’s arrived on a chunk of wood rather than a plate! Three cheeses, cheddar, a red coloured cheese and a blue cheese that I would guess was stilton, this being a Dorset pub I was half hoping for Blue Vinny. This was accompanied by a generous portion of bread, small pots of pickle and a frilly but fairly tasteless salad which included some very small pickled onions.
There were also caramelised walnuts as mentioned on The George Inn’s menu. They were very crunchy and very sweet. Walnuts on their own might have been an interesting addition but these seemed out of place and a distraction.
At £7.95 an ok ploughman’s lunch pretentiously presented.
The owners used to work for Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall at River Cottage so I’m not surprised about the wood instead of a plate. What about an apple? All proper pub ploughmans lunches should have an apple, ideally a cox’s orange pippin.